“There are no second acts in American lives,”
according to F. Scott Fitzgerald. And yet – this is mine. Includes wheelchairs and a Chihuahua.
My name is Matthew. The moniker TaxPoodle came about when I was given the nickname of “Poodle” and I protested, pointing out that Matthew (the guy from the Bible) had been a tax collector (publican) for Tiberius Caesar and the Romans – I then became known as TaxPoodle!
I avoid eating in restaurants with pictures of food on the menus (unless they are Thai), detest pickles and candy corn, enjoy plants and gardening, and insist on proper use of the Oxford comma. I know the difference between the possessive its and the contraction it’s as well as when to use whom instead of who, but that doesn’t mean I always get it right or care if I do. And I have a tendency to start sentences with conjunctions, which the people who make rules about these things say is a no-no. I’m not that concerned about it though, because writing is, for me, a process not unlike adjusting a lens – it brings what I am looking at into clearer focus. I have written about everything from social issues to sandwiches. I make no claims to any expertise. Well, except about the sandwiches.
If you find yourself asking ‘what is the point to all this writing and of this website,’ I suppose I could ask the same about chasing a ball around a lawn with a stick trying to get it into a hole… eighteen times… avoiding sand put in your way for no apparent reason. That may sound profound, but the truth of the matter is I just think golf is silly — though I have been known to watch it if the remote’s out of reach.
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